Turkish, Azerbaijani presidents meet in Uzbekistan
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ilham Aliyev hold closed-door meeting on sidelines of Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met on Thursday in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The two leaders’ closed-door meeting took place on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. No further information on the meeting was released.
However, the recent deadly border clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which Erdogan has criticized Armenia for provoking, was likely a subject of discussion.
After his arrival in Samarkand this afternoon, Erdogan visited its historic Hazrat Khizr Mosque and Tomb. He is also due to attend a sapling-planting event along with the leaders of countries attending the summit and tour newly built areas of the city.
Later in the day, Erdogan will attend dinner with the leaders.
On Friday, Erdogan will attend as a special guest the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO, with Türkiye taking part at the presidential level for the first time since Ankara obtained SCO dialogue partner status in 2012.
Established in 2001, the eight-member organization aims to strengthen friendly, good neighborly relations and mutual trust among member states.
Erdogan is expected to address the second session of the summit and hold bilateral meetings with such leaders as his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
